Laws against puffing in public places and imbibing while driving are radical for Montana, the Tribune's Maurice Possley writes

MISSOULA, Mont. — Two of Montanans' favorite recreational activities--smoking and drinking--took serious hits this month with lawmakers passing bills banning smoking in all public places and outlawing drinking while driving.

Montana is the 10th state with such a smoking ban while only one state--Mississippi--still allows driving with open containers of alcohol.

In this vast state with fewer than 1 million people where individual freedom has long ranked ahead of political correctness, some are shrugging their shoulders at the seeming inevitability of it all. Others are downright angry.

Here in Missoula, an earthy, liberal city where tofu is a popular menu item, Gary Brotzman, 54, was finishing his lunch at Stockman's Bar--one of the state's 1,700 taverns--and he was eager to voice his opposition.

"People like to smoke with a drink," he said. "I drink and I smoke. I have been smoking since I was 10 years old. They're taking away our rights."

He pulled his package of cigarettes from his shirt pocket.

"I drink whenever I want, and I smoke whenever I want. And I don't want to smoke outside."

Brotzman has handled the cleanup at Stockman's for 31 years and said hauling out other people's cigarette butts doesn't bother him a bit.

At a nearby table, Erin Aston, 28, an insurance underwriter, was smoking. She explained that she comes to the bar every day for lunch so she can smoke afterward.

"But I don't smoke at home," she said. "It's inconvenient to go outside, but even in the winter, we are Montanans, and we don't mind going outside. I think the law is a good thing."

For taverns and bars, there will be time to get used to the smoking ban. The law will take effect Oct. 1 for all buildings and offices open to the public, but bars won't be affected until 2007.

Mike Larson, owner of Stockman's, said he designates no smoking sections during lunch and in the afternoon when steady customers from nearby banks and businesses drop in and on two occasions had smoke-free Friday nights.

"There were five or six ladies who came down who said they wouldn't have come in otherwise," he said. "I was amazed. And the place was full."

Larson said the ban on driving with open alcohol was not unexpected, given that the state was threatened with an annual loss of $5 million in federal highway funds. The law will carry a fine of only $100 and a provision saying the offenses do not go on driving records.

You have to be caught

The new open container law will be largely symbolic, he said. "You get out in some of those remote counties, where there aren't many police, where everybody knows everybody. These boys are going to do what they want."

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Montana has the highest rate of alcohol-related deaths for every 100 million miles driven with 41 percent of those who die in alcohol-related crashes being legally drunk.

The culture of having a beer while driving home from a fishing trip will be hard to break, many folks say.

"Everyone wants to drink a beer when they're driving," said Aston.

For those who might want something besides smoke in their lungs, a few dozen paces down the street from Stockman's is Take A Breath Oxygen Bar, which opened just days after the legislature acted.

Carol Carpenter said she realized her dream of combining her master's degree in psychology with her talent for massage to create a "spiritual center, a gathering place."

The first oxygen bar in the world opened in the late 1980s in Tokyo, prompted largely by heavy air pollution. The fad migrated to the U.S.--actor Woody Harrelson opened the first one in Hollywood--and at one time there were hundreds, though not many remain open today.

High on the big `O'

On a couch, Maria Smith leaned back and breathed in pure oxygen.

"It keeps you centered," she said. "It gets you to a state of total bliss. You feel like you've been hugged."

Carpenter hopes to one day to offer her services at fire camps, set up when forest fires break out. And Missoula is famous for its winter inversions--when a heavy cloud cover traps smoke and other air pollution in the valley.

In the meantime, Carpenter has a word for the customers at Stockman's: Inhaling pure oxygen helps one recover from smoke inhalation.